Our speaker for this meeting is Brenda S. Cox. Brenda is from the United States and has loved Jane Austen for many years. When she wanted to learn more about Austen and the church, she found that there was no source that answered all her questions. So she spent about ten years researching, and wrote the book, Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. It explores connections between Austen’s work, her Church of England, and prominent events and people in English Christianity at the time. Brenda writes for Jane Austen’s World, her own blog, Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen, and the magazine Jane Austen's Regency World, and loves speaking about Austen and the church.

During her talk, Brenda will examine that although Jane Austen had a high regard for the church, why then did she present Mr Collins as a buffoon? Why was he so deferential to Lady Catherine? (He had good reasons). Did he fail in his duties, as Edmund Bertram of Mansfield Park tells us some clergymen did? We’ll explore Mr Collins’s words, actions, and character, including his marriage proposal, comparing him to Austen’s other clergymen, satirical cartoons of the time, and Anglican and Evangelical ideals.

This talk will be a great compliment to our Pride and Prejudice theme for this year and is expected to enhance and improve our understanding of how Jane Austen portrays her characters in the clergy, and in turn, improve our understanding of Austen and her works.